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Comment by madaxe_again | Hacker News Reader

Haaretz restrained from investigating the matter too deeply in order to avoid breaking the law

Of all of the crazy in this story, this is possibly the most worrying bit - journalists can’t do journalism without facing prosecution.

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I’m guessing it means that they didn’t tried to validate that they could get access to the registry by actually accessing it themselves.

A few years back, a Ha'aretz journalist had to flee the country for a few years to avoid being targeted by the Israeli Security Service (Shabak or Shin-Bet) for having received leaked documents from a whistle-blower in the military. This was the Anat Qam - Uri Blau case. It's actually a bit more complex than that, you can look up the details.

I only guessing, but presumably downloading the leaked information may be a legal grey-area that Haaretz decided to avoid.

Remember, "journalists" have the rights of ordinary people. They aren't an elite class. Anyone who speaks about the world to another person is a journalist.

That's like saying "anyone who learns about the world is a scientist". Journalism is not only made of information or opinions, at least it shouldn't be.

> That's like saying "anyone who learns about the world is a scientist".

That's exactly what a scientist is? At least if they're using the scientific method to learn about the world.

Although all you need to be a scientist is to use the scientific method properly, most people believe that you also need to have a PhD or a job that requires a lab coat

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